337 
natural history, is overrun with the little pests, and as fast as the insec- 
ticides used in the boxes evaporate other individuals of Anthrenus 
replace such as have been killed. A thorough search in such cases 
might reveal a box of neglected specimens somewhere in which the 
Anthrenus are breeding. Our correspondent was advised to subject 
the room in which his collection is stored to a thorough fumigation with 
bisulphide of carbon or benzine, to be repeated in a month or six 
weeks later and again in the summer, if these two applications were 
not thoroughly successful. 
INSECT DAMAGKE TO BEER- CASKS IN INDIA. 
We have just received from the author, Mr. Walter F. H. Bland- 
ford, a most thorough and interesting rei^ort on the destruction of beer- 
casks in India by the attacks of a boring beetle (Xylebonis perforans). 
We have, in one of the earlier numbers of Insect Life, incidentally 
mentioned this peculiar damage which has for many years been a source 
of trouble to the officers in the Commissariat Service of the Govern- 
ment of India. Burrows or tunnels are excavated from the outside of 
the cask-wood and run in various directions in its interior, a certain 
proportion of them being continued through the wood so as to cause 
leakage and subsequent souring of the beer which remains. These 
attacks have been known certainly since 1850, and there has been con- 
siderable controversy as to whether they originate in England or are 
brought about after the arrival of the casks in India. In general the 
officials in India have been looking to England for the remedy, whereas, 
as Mr. Blandford shows, the damage originates after arrival in the East, 
and remedial work should have been done there. The paper includes 
a full summary of previous reports on the subject; an account of the 
source of information of the author; the zoology of the borer; its habits 
in its different stages ; its geographical distribution ; a somewhat gen- 
eral consideration of the insects found in Oak timber; the circum- 
stances influencing the attack in India, such as the construction of the 
go-downs or store-houses; the commencement of the attack during 
inland transit of casks; quality of the cask- wood; time of storage, and 
the extent of the damage. He shows conclusively that all attacks on 
casks have begun in India and not in Europe nor in any recorded 
instance on shipboard. The perfect insect bores into the cask and 
lays its eggs in the burrow. It attacks the wood and selects the 
moister part around the bung. Casks of thin wood suffer most. As a 
rule the inner surface is not reached. The insect permanently infests 
the store-houses and go-downs and is most injurious in those structures 
in which jungle- wood and bamboos are used. The author recommends 
the construction of casks out of thicker staves and hoops and the use 
of cask-enamel to keep the wood drier. As a protection for uninjured 
casks a large number of substances are mentioned, but thorough 
experiments do not seem to have been made. Treatment with quassia, 
lime, or creosote are those from which the best results are to be expected, 
